A blog for the Alexandria, Virginia, Chapter of the Barbershop Harmony Society.

Wednesday, December 12, 2012

Looking Back on the Dec. 4th Chapter Meeting

The SOLD OUT Holiday shows were all hugely successful. There will
be a wrap up report about them soon.

But the excitement carried over to Tues. nite’s caroling in Old
Town.

Here is the invitation we all got from director Joe Cerutti:

“Congrats on an
incredibly successful show weekend. More on that later, but I just wanted to
remind you about our evening of caroling through the streets of Old Town
tonight. We will be welcoming special guest caroler Sean Devine, lead of OC TIMES.

We will be meeting at
Durant at our usual rehearsal time (that's 7pm, Eric) for warm-up, and a few
important announcements. If you're running late, we'll be meeting at Market
Square (City Hall on King Street) to depart at about 8pm. Come one, come all!

We have some new,
fancy-shmancy places this year that we've never sung for in the past. Our
pre-approved venue's this year include Gadsby's Tavern, Bugsy's Pizza, Pop's
Ice Cream, Fish Market, O'Connor's Pub, Chart House, Virtue Feed and Grain,
Union St. Public House, and Chadwick's, with a few more possibilities along the
way.

Don't miss out on this
exciting experience and help us fill Old Town with some good ol' fashioned
Harmo-cheer!

And remember next week
will be the Put Together Contest, so arrive early tonight and practice your
various quartet combinations or get some help finding some folks to sing with!
-- Joe Cerutti”

It all happened as Joe predicted.A huge crowd of guys were present – 65 or
more at last count.Associate director Tony Colosimo did the vocal warm ups
while the gathering carolers assembled on the main floor in Durant.Some guys took home a supply of White House
Ornaments to sell these last few weeks.

There were a few announcements and then Joe briefed us on the plan for the evening.Thanks to Joe Cerutti Sr. and Mark
Klostermeyer for doing the advance work with the merchants where we were to
sing.

Many guys car-pooled to get to Market Square.We actually warmed up by singing to King
Street shoppers from the steps at the Square.Then we walked from spot to spot and entered each one to fill their
restaurant or bar with a huge holiday sound.

Not to miss a chance, we passed out Singing Valentine cards to all
we met. Assistant directors Mike Kelly and Will Cox and Tony took their turns at leading the singing.Great that Steve White brought the sleigh bells his grandfather made for him
in 1963.Steve has used them for caroling every year he has been a member.

Basically we sang three songs at each stop, then Joe cheered out “We are the Alexandria
Harmonizers and Wish You a Merry Christmas” which was our cue to head out and
sing the familiar “We Wish You ….” . We even sang “Hallelujah” on the steps of
Torpedo Factory where the sound was realllllly live. Some folks followed us
from place to place to hear more.

After the last stop, many stayed for an afterglow. We even taught
the manager to sing a tag.

In other news, Calvin
Schnure reminded guys to get a quartet ready to sing in the chapter contest
on Dec. 11th.There are
trophies for the top three comedy quartet, trophies for the top regular quartet
and trophies to the top overall quartet.Lew Klinge is preparing
material for his usual emcee job that nite. There is also a trophy for the guy
who sings in the most quartets that nite – it is named after George Azzam who sang in many each year
and one year had pictures of himself as he tried to sing all four parts!!!

If any of the new guys wanna give it a shot (and they should), let Calvin
or Joe know you are interested and
want ideas of other guys to sing with.

For the many new guys in the chapter, note that there will be no
rehearsal on Dec. 25th nor Jan. 1st. However there will be the annual barbershop
gathering in MD for guys and family members to enjoy some quartet singing and
food/drink/and/fellowship. It is hosted by the Dundalk Chapter and held Thurs.
Dec. 27th at 7:30-11:59 pm, at Michael’s 8th Avenue, 7220
Grayburn Dr., Glen Burnie, MD$15 fee.
Last year there were a lot of Harmonizers there and many of them sang in
quartets in the impromptu quartet contest.Maybe some of our chapter put-together quartets will go enter.

Finally we will be singing at the Masonic Memorial on Tues. nite
Dec. 18th doing a show for kids and their families.Stay tuned for more details as to uniform and
report time.

Until
next time – editorjack!

(This message is prepared for your review if
you were there, for your information if you had to miss, and as a historical
record of the great things going on each week at an Alexandria Harmonizer
Chapter meeting. —YeEd.)